Bauchelain

Bauchelain
Fan art by Yapattack
Biographical information
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Appearance	Tall, pale complexion with grey eyes and a pointed beard
Social information
Occupation(s)	Necromancer Explorer
Title(s)	The Corbie of Hooks
Warren(s)	Aral Gamelon Chaos Hood's Path
Soletaken	Crow

"It is our fate to wander, of course, and yours to serve our whims. Thus we are consigned to the path of our lives accruing knowledge and wealth for no obvious purpose, beyond the generous spreading out of misery and suffering to our eternal amusement."

―Bauchelain, to Emancipor Reese

Bauchelain [BOKE-uh-lain] was one half of the necromancer duo known as the Nehemoth. His partner was Korbal Broach, and Emancipor Reese acted as manservant to both.

He was described as a tall and gaunt, angular man in his forties or fifties with a pale complexion, flat grey eyes, thin bloodless lips, a neatly trimmed and pointed salt-and-pepper beard, and greying swept back hair with a widows peak artfully greying at the edges. He was lean and fit and possessed a dancer's grace. He was careful to maintain his health for those "rare occasions when sorcery, guile, deceit, and back-stabbing failed." He wore black exclusively. He was also a Soletaken necromancer, shifting into the form of a crow.

He evidently had martial experience, as he traveled with a well used hauberk of finely made iron-chain as well as a glistening two-handed sword with a black and onyx pommel. He owned another longsword capable of igniting in coppery flames upon command, as well as a midnight-blue two-handed sword that flickered blue flames and served as the prison for a thousand hungry demons. Additionally, he carried a steel crossbow with magically invested bolts. He professed to be a skilled alchemist and practitioner of dissection and vivisection. His talents also included a facility for languages. He learned to speak Theftian during a three week sea voyage.

Bauchelain's principle hobby was conjuring demons, said to be the "rarest and most difficult discipline among the necromantic arts". Bauchelain's demons were bound within chains bearing sigils of High Koreli, a script not used in centuries. He saw them as tools, and once bound they were never released. He had shifted his arts away from a necromancer's traditional work with the dead because he despised maggots, preferring his "evil to be clean and wholesome."

He also had the magical talent to foresee a person's death, claiming Emancipor Reese would have a long life and die laughing. The Bonecaster Pran Chole described him as a summoner of formidable power, and thought him a greater threat than Broach.

He was a man of wealth, possessing fine clothes, expensive books, and a high salaried manservant. When asked where he came from he said, "A distant land...It's name would, alas, mean nothing to you." He claimed to have been born of noble blood, spending his early childhood in a stone keep. He spent most of his time in the keep's kitchen where he learned to bake, a skill he still maintained in adulthood.

He was known to wear a black leather cape, black leather-clad sleeves, and black scale-backed gauntlets. Another time he wore fine black silks with gold thread highlights here and there with soft black leather gloves.

Bauchelain purposefully exposed himself to low doses of poisons and made himself immune to yellow paralt, among others. He was said to heal quickly.

The necromancer was a man of impenetrable confidence and was not known for having a sense of humour. He admitted that curiosity was a "rather obsessive trait of mine" that often resulted in "regrettable violence to the one being questioned." He preferred to indulge in his rare displays of nostalgia in private, fearing his occasional flares of sentimentality would one day turn on him. He fondly recalled a dog he owned as a child named Throatnash, which had terrorised his entire city. After a court sorcerer had tossed the beast into a warren of roaring flames, Bauchelain had avenged it and the city had burned for days.

In Blood Follows

Bauchelain by YoltonsArt

Bauchelain and Korbal Broach travelled on the Mist Rider from Korel to Lamentable Moll. Bauchelain spent his time in the Moll studying the rune covered slate used in the city's famed barrows while Broach engaged in his own interests. Bauchelain hoped to discover a way to harness the rock's natural energies toward "order". While conducting his research, Bauchelain hired Emancipor Reese as a manservant. He also incapacitated Steck Marynd, who was pursuing the duo for unknown reasons. When Broach's excesses received too much attention from both official and supernatural authorities, the necromancers and Reese left the city on the Suncurl.

In The Lees of Laughter's End

While traveling on the Suncurl through Laughter's End Bauchelain reprimanded Reese for his copious use of the drug, Durhang, as a way to cope with Korbal Broach's patchwork homunculus. He took away the drug and warned Reese that as he was employed by a demon conjurer and a necromancer he should expect to see much worse in their employ. When Captain Sater came to consult with Bauchelain regarding the lich rampaging in the ship's hold, Reese mistakenly prepared a Bloodwine refreshment for his master. Bauchelain forced Reese from his cabin along with his sword before the wine's effects completely took hold and then proceeded to rape Captain Sater.

Once Bauchelain regained his senses he left his cabin in search of his sword to be ready to confront the lich. He found the sword on the deck where Reese had dropped it just in time to confront an enormous god-thing that burst from the ocean. Bauchelain's sword skills were no match for the sheer size of the beast which sent him crashing through the deck into the ship's strong room coincidentally in time to rescue Korbal Broach from the Sech'kellyn. Bauchelain killed one of the demonic statues before the rest were taken by the god-thing.

In The Wurms of Blearmouth

Bauchelain by HemlockMilk

Shortly after departing Laughter's End, the Suncurl was attacked by the Unreasoning Vengeance. Her crew of Chanters sought vengeance against Captain Sater for stealing the Toll's City treasury. Bauchelain and Broach helped defend the ship, but the Suncurl was ultimately wrecked on a reef off the coast of Spendrugle. Bauchelain pulled Reese from the surf without somehow getting wet himself while Broach flew to safety in crow form. Bauchelain and Reese were met on the beach by locals come to separate any weakened survivors from their belongings, but the pair did not prove to be easy marks. Comber Whuffine Gaggs slyly suggested that master and servant pay a visit to local lord Fangatooth Claw.

Walking up to the village, Bauchelain arrived in time to prevent Broach from killing the town constable, Hordilo Stinq. Stinq escorted the necromancers to Wurms Keep where Fangatooth invited them to dinner. During dinner conversation, Bauchelain chided their host for poisoning their food with yellow paralt. To show there were no hard feelings the necromancer offered to make cookies in the keep's kitchen. Fangatooth attempted to flaunt his own poison resistance by accepting Bauchelain's offer, but the lord was not prepared for the demon that exploded out of his stomach.

Bauchelain freed Warmet Humble, the former lord of Wurm's Keep, from Fangatooth's dungeon before he, Broach, and Reese departed Spendrugle in a massive, black-lacquered carriage. As they left the town, Bauchelain revealed to Reese that the carriage's cargo included the Toll's City treasury that was thought to have gone down with the Suncurl. He also admitted that Reese was his longest surviving manservant and that this made him feel some affection towards him. After all, Bauchelain had been forced to murder all of the others for their disloyalty.

In Memories of Ice

Bauchelain by HemlockMilk

Three years after leaving Lamentable Moll, Bauchelain, Korbal Broach, and Reese traveled for the first time to Darujhistan on Genabackis. Arriving shortly after the events of Gardens of the Moon, the necromancers heard tales for the first time of the Malazan Empire and the skykeep, Moon's Spawn. For two weeks, the pair engaged in their usual activities, visiting arcane places such as the new Finnest House and leaving a ghastly trail of murders in their wake.

As city leaders searched for the mysterious killer, the necromancers departed on the caravan road towards Saltoan. Along the way, they sought to investigate the tomb where the Jaghut Tyrant Raest had been imprisoned before being freed by the Malazans. Bauchelain sent Reese to bring them the well-respected caravan guard Gruntle to serve as their escort. Gruntle was encouraged to assist by his own employer, Keruli, but demurred entering the tomb upon meeting the disquieting Broach. Bauchelain and Broach observed Moon's Spawn as it passed on the horizon wary of attracting Anomander Rake's attention. Then Broach asked his partner's permission to kill Gruntle, but Bauchelain permitted Gruntle to make a hasty retreat. The necromancers then descended into the tomb.

Bauchelain continued to look for a caravan guard to hire as they traveled eastward. This proved to be a difficult task as his eerie manner and choice of companion in Korbal Broach scared off any would-be employees, save the suicidal Buke. Gruntle tried to warn off Buke only to learn his friend had taken the job because he was convinced Korbal Broach was responsible for the murders in Darujhistan, and he sought justice. Similar murders later occurred in Saltoan during their stay there.

Necromancers at work by Dejan Delic

Continuing on the road to Capustan, the necromancers broke into a Barghast barrow and enslaved the Rhivi spirit they found there. Then they were attacked by an undead K'Chain Che'Malle K'ell Hunter, who destroyed another of Korbal Broach's "children", as well as a trunk of arcanely inscribed slates, before breaking off the attack. A later attack by six more Hunters was only defeated by the combined efforts of the necromancers, Gruntle's caravan, and an army of T'lan Imass and T'lan Ay. Of the two caravans, only the necromancers escaped without severe injury.

Necromancer's carriage by PLUGO

On the eve of the Siege of Capustan, Bauchelain and Broach took possession of an abandoned estate within the city and continued their predations. Bauchelain spent his days holed up in a laboratory he built in the cellar. During the siege, the pair defended their mansion using combined forces sorcery, undead, and Sirinth demons. While running errands for his employers, Buke secretly organised the locals to keep watch on the estate. The guard was also given a potion by Keruli that allowed him to spy on the pair as a Soletaken sparrowhawk. Amidst the chaos of the siege, Broach's hunts began to turn up empty. But Bauchelain was aware of Buke's activities and gave him a stern warning to stop interfering before reassigning him to serve as captain of the estate's undead guards. The two also violently repelled Rath'Shadowthrone's attempts to contact them through his servant, Marble.

The necromancers took an interest in Anaster, leader of the hordes of cannibal Tenescowri assaulting the city. Approaching him on the battlefield in their Soletaken forms, their own sorcery and summoned demons were repelled by the powerful magic protecting him.

Later, they were visited by Quick Ben, who wanted to take the necromancers' measure. He bypassed the estate's wards and guardians to appear in the house's main chamber before Bauchelain. Over a drink of wine, the Bridgeburner mage warned about the threat the Crippled God posed. Korbal Broach attempted to kill the Malazan mage with a surprise attack, but he was blasted into the next room by Quick Ben's use of six Warrens in precise conjunction. Impressed, Bauchelain described him as an "artist" and announced his great interest in Quick Ben. Bauchelain remarked that such level of casting must have been exhausting and that he would attack the now-weakened wizard unless he revealed his secrets to him. Instead of submitting to the necromancer, Quick Ben attacked him with another half dozen Warrens he had kept in reserve. As Quick Ben departed the unconscious necromancers, Reese rebuked him for not finally killing off his employers. Bauchelain later wondered whether it was his and Korbal's habit to underestimate the power of their enemies.

Once the siege was over, the necromancers readied to depart. They approached Bridgeburner Corporal Picker for directions to someone who could provide them supplies. Picker did not care for Bauchelain's haughty manner and knocked him unconscious with a gauntleted fist to the face. Blend assisted by dropping Broach with a sword pommel to the skull.

The necromancers followed the allied army to Coral pulling two wagons full of corpses and loot. They were stopped by Gruntle who was suspicious at his friend Buke's absence. Reese confirmed that Buke had walked away from the job and Bauchelain asked Gruntle to let Buke know he was fired. Itkovian informed the necromancer that Reese was in pain from a broken tooth, so Bauchelain requested Broach make use of his surgical skills despite Reese's tearful pleading.

After the Battle of Black Coral, the necromancers sought to make their new home in the corpse-strewn city that was now darkened by Kurald Galain. But Gruntle warned the pair that the Malazan and Tiste Andii occupiers would not tolerate Broach's hobbies. Bauchelain then asked for etiquette advice regarding an invitation to a visit from Jib Bole and the Bole brothers. Keeping the knowledge of the brothers' lethal hatred of necromancers to himself, the caravan guard recommended Bauchelain wear his best.

In The Healthy Dead

Four years after leaving Lamentable Moll, Bauchelain, Korbal Broach, and Reese arrived on the outskirts of Quaint. They were one step ahead of an army pursuing them after they burned down half of the last town they had visited. Determined to keep a low profile they were nevertheless persuaded by Imid Factallo and Elas Sil to bring down the tyrannical health-based regime of King Macrotus for a large chest of gold and silver coins. Bauchelain stripped Reese of all his illicit substances and sent him into the city.

Bauchelain and Broach raised the spirit of dead King Necrotus, and convinced him to join their uprising against his brother, Macrotus. Then they used the blood of Well Knight Storkul Purge to raise the city's dead en masse from their graves. Bauchelain entered the now burning city only to discover that most of the chaos was the result of Reese's bumbling attempt to infiltrate the city. He was impressed by Reese's work, saying his own efforts had been unnecessary and that the chest of coins rightly belonged to Reese. The two marched to the palace where they discovered King Macrotus had long since died.

Bauchelain gathered the city's residents and revealed the true identity of the Lady of Beneficence and her motives for inspiring Macrotus' tyranny. He announced that former saints Imid Factallo and Elas Sil were now king and queen before departing with King Necrotus' still animated head — in a glass case — as a souvenir.

In Crack'd Pot Trail

Bauchelain, Broach, and Reese travelled the Cracked Pot Trail to reach Farrog, home of the Indifferent God. The two necromancers, deciding that the god had "reneged on the most precious covenant of all", had determined that its life was forfeit. As they made the final ferry crossing to the city they witnessed a peculiar accident as a carriage, in its haste to make the ferry, fell over three hundred feet to the river from the nearby cliffs. The pair were seemingly unaware that the Indifferent God travelled alongside them as the Ferryman conducting their journey.

In The Fiends of Nightmaria

Arriving in Farrog, Bauchelain cut off the head of the reigning king, N'Gorm the Lesser, with his sword and claimed the throne as King Bauchelain the First. Korbal Broach invested himself as the Grand Bishop of the Indifferent God's Holy Church, turning all of the god's priests into undead and imprisoning the Ferryman possessed by the god within the Royal Palace's dungeons. The new king took advantage of civil unrest over the results of the city's 'Artist of the Century' competition to arrest all the artists, poets, singers, musicians, dancers, and other voices of potential subversion. Anyone who they thought might possibly be a threat to their domination of the city, such as Thieves Guild Mistress Dam Loudly Heer or the pursuing Nehemothanai, was ruthlessly culled.

Bauchelain involved himself in his usual practice of summoning and binding demons, which he did in his Conjuration Chamber situated in the crypts of the Royal Palace, while Korbal Broach involved himself with producing large numbers of headless undead creatures from the bodies of their enemies. When Broach informed him that the Indifferent God had broken free of its prison and roamed the dungeons, Bauchelain summoned the Demon Prince Flail Their Limbs and a host of others to hunt the god down.

Bauchelain reveled in terrorising his subjects as a means to secure his life's goal: vast personal wealth and the control it offered. He envisaged an ideal world in which the global economy flowed into his coffers like a river. The necromancer had no plans to spend the money--merely denying it to others as an act of absolute power was enough. To this end, he encouraged the General of the Royal Farrogal Army, Pin Dollop, to initiate hostilities with the rich and reclusive neighboring Empire of Nightmaria, whose inhabitants were known to the people of Farrog as Fiends. In aid of this, Grand Bishop Korbal Broach also declared a Holy War against Nightmaria.

However, the increasing level of hostilities resulted in the Nightmarians delivering their own declaration of war through their ambassador, Ophal D'Neeth Flatroq. To Bauchelain's horror, the ambassador also apprised the King that a Nightmarian army--some 150,000 strong and far outnumbering their own--had crossed the border and were only two days' march from the Farrog city walls. Their intent was to take extensive and dire revenge on Farrog and all of its institutions. Bauchelain hurriedly ordered Emancipor Reese to ready the necromancers' carriage and horses to flee with their horde of wealth stored in a personal warren inside.

Broach sent all of his undead servants to clear the way to the city's gate, but the population rose up to destroy them, so Bauchelain was forced to cut a path through the crowd for the carriage with his flaming demon sword. A day later, they could see the city burning behind them and Bauchelain prepared to lead the carriage through a warren to throw off another of their pursuers--an army commanded by a Mysterious Lady.

In Upon a Dark of Evil Overlords

The necromancers and their servant hastily left a burning city that had been the site of their most recent efforts. Rather than accept a reign of tyranny under the necromancers' command, the citizens had descended into savagery. Korbal Broach scouted ahead in crow form looking for their next destination and reported that the army that had been pursuing them for the past year had grown to include tens of thousands of soldiers. Bauchelain was not the least perturbed by their pursuers and decided their next endeavour would be more modest--a town of sufficient size to support their needs.

Traveling across the plain, they discovered a lone tower occupied by a survivalist and his life-sized doll, Solly. Bauchelain determined to rifle through the contents of the tower for valuables, inviting himself inside for a dinner prepared by Reese. At evening's end, Broach decapitated the tower's owner with a swipe of his finger at Bauchelain's request. When Bauchelain justified the murder, Reese made a subtle criticism of the argument, earning the necromancer's terrifying regard. "Too often I underestimate you, Mister Reese, for all your coarse ways", he said.

Arriving at the wealthy town of Earbeford, Bauchelain's request, they learned that three necromancers known as The Tearful Three and their undead army of ten thousand had threatened to destroy it. Bauchelain left Reese and Broach behind to visit the town council to offer them salvation and a deal was struck. When Reese saw Chancellor Gullyb lead the necromancer toward the town's treasury building, he warned Thibly, a local conscript, that the chancellor was making a mistake.

On the day that the Tearful Three's army arrived outside the town, Bauchelain and Broach stood observing the battlefield beside the chancellor and the council. Bauchelain used the opportunity to extort a doubling of their fee from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand jeerkhins. He knew that this was the entire contents of the town treasury, but said two or three generations of austerity was better than annihilation. When the guardsman, Bleat, interrupted Bauchelain to balk at the prospect of the town's looming bankruptcy, an annoyed Bauchelain had Broach kill him. Chancellor Gullyb was forced to agree with the new terms.

Bauchelain then waded into the army of undead with his flaming longsword, parting their ranks in his passing, while Broach flew overhead in crow form. Recognising the famed Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, Nog the Furbious panicked and attempted to sacrifice his comrade, Pwet Terse, at Bauchelain's feet to save his own life. Broach killed Nog from above while Bauchelain decapitated Trooth the Dint even as the man attempted to negotiate a truce. Then Bauchelain slew the Three's servants, Zwalt and Swillstine. Bauchelain spared the life of the servant, Abercrass, when the man claimed a connection with Emancipor Reese. He said Reese had achieved a worldwide celebrity amongst the members of the Grand Union of Manservancy as servant to "Bocky Lane" and "Kubby Brooch". Many guildmembers such as himself had been inspired to serve necromancer masters by Reese's example and every guildhall honoured him. Bauchelain was not pleased.

With the Tearful Three defeated, Bauchelain, Korbal Broach, and Emancipor Reese left the town to the mercy of the now masterless horde of undead, whose elimination had not been included in the necromancers' contract. The townspeople were likely all slaughtered and eaten but for the wet-nurse, Anavalistia, who joined Emancipor Reese atop the necromancers' carriage for an uncertain future.

In Stonewielder

Hiam, Lord Protector of the Stormwall, and Wall Marshal Learthol discussed the unusual circumstance of a mage being allowed to practice his craft in the realm of Our Lady the Blessed Saviour. Learthol recalled stories of a pair of travelling sorcerers who had once received similar dispensation. Hiam dismissed the pair as "merely passing through" and "of no consequence."

In Orb Sceptre Throne

Bauchelain, along with Korbal Broach (and Emancipor Reese) visited the island remnants of the fallen Moon's Spawn — known as the 'Spawns' — which were located off the southern coast of Genabackis. The necromancers were seeking the Throne of Night, which was thought by some to have been destroyed.

The trio were described by Antsy as "...the elegant fellow, Bauchelain,...[then] an ugly squat man, pale and bloated,...[followed] by an old man loaded with baggage...perhaps not so old, just looking extremely careworn." Bauchelain and Korbal Broach were present when the Throne of Night was found with the aid of Orchid, but — as it turned out — they were unable to access it.

In The God is Not Willing

Some ten years after The Crippled God a large black lacquered wagon decorated with ornate carvings arrived at Silver Lake. Stillwater reported to Spindle that the occupant was a monk. Spindle squinted at the carriage from afar and asked her to confirm that it was not occupied by two necromancers.

Quotes

Bauchelain: "I must tell you: you, sir, are the first of my manservants to have survived for as long as you have. Accordingly, I look upon you with considerable confidence, and not a little affection."

Emancipor Reese: "Glad to hear it, Master. Still, what happened to all those other manservants you had?"

Bauchelain: "Why, I had to kill them, each and every one. Despite considerable investment on my part, I might note. Highly frustrating, as you might imagine. And indeed, on a number of occasions, I was in fact forced to defend myself. Imagine, one's own seemingly loyal manservant attempting to kill his master. This is what the world has come to, Mister Reese. Is it any wonder that I envisage a brighter future, one where I sit secure upon a throne, ruling over millions of wretched subjects, and immune to all concerns over my safety? This is the tyrant's dream, Mister Reese."

―Bauchelain and Emancipor Reese

Trivia

An image of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach painted by author Steven Erikson can be found here.

Notes and references

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